The primary objectives of the subject system are first to provide a welding wire storage spool having sufficient wire carrying capacity as to require far less frequent changing or resupply and yet which spool is of such a configuration as may be transported even in a congested area by a simple manual handoperated device.
Heretofore it has been assumed in dealing with bulk quantities of welding wire that proper feed or pay-off of the wire from the spool required the same to be mounted on a spool which was relatively flat, i.e., the height or width of the reel was either substantially less than the spool's diameter or, at most, wherein the spool height was generally equal to the spool diameter.
With the subject system, an upright type spool is utilized, i.e., the spool sits on one of its ends and the welding wire coil is in a vertical or upright position. The spool is of the "dead pay" type wherein the spool remains stationary and, as an example, the wire is uncoiled through an orbit arm of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,947 Shelton.
It is an important aspect of the subject system that the spool diameter is substantially less than its overall height. In other words, the wire wrapped spool presents a configuration wherein the height of the spool is substantially greater than its diameter with the result that the center of gravity of the coiled spool is much closer to the outside diameter of the coiled spool than has been used in the past.
The hand-operable device which is part of applicant's system is a two wheeled cart which may be disconnectably coupled to the elongated spool containing several hundred pounds of welding wire such that the spool may be cradled against the cart for stable movement. The cart includes an upright beam so proportioned relative to the center of gravity of the wire-wrapped spool that the spool may be manually lifted and transported by an operator. As will be apparent from the detailed description which follows, the elongated nature of both the spool and cart enable them to be jointly moved through areas of minimal clearances where a flat spool and a forklift truck could not traverse.
With applicant's manually movable spooled wire storage and transport system it is now possible to provide a source of welding wire proximate a welding station whereby a single spool may supply 10 to 20 times the quantity of wire heretofore available on previous hand transportable spools. In other words, applicant has developed a unique combination of spool and transporting device which maximizes the quantity of wire which may be stored on a spool and yet be manually movable through highly congested factory areas. In realizing this combination, applicant has achieved significant manufacturing economies by greatly extending the time between wire spool changes as compared with previous type manually transportable wire supply systems.
For illustrative purposes, applicant's system is shown and described in the environment of an assembly line because of its particular applicability thereto.